I consider myself an artist. I write, paint, snap pictures, and play swingin’ jazz in my free time. Being who I am, I find myself qualified to testify that video games are a form of art. While the Supreme Court ruled that video games should be considered art when it comes to legal protection, there is large part of society that doesn’t see the worth in video games. They aren’t seen as art and are cast in a juvenile light.

Let’s talk about why they are artistic.

Just look at video games. Who do you think spent hours upon hours designing that environment? Artists. Sure, it may not be something you want to look at, but it’s art nonetheless. I’m not a fan of Picasso, but I respect him as an artist as well as his work.

Beautiful.

How about how they sound? That music? Written, conducted, and performed by musical artists.

And the narrative. The story, the dialogue, the structure of the game itself! Created by writers; artists with the written word. They give reason to why you’re doing what you are.

We could go even further and talk about the programming. To me, it’s art. I’ve heard programmers talk about “elegant code” and the satisfaction they feel when things go the way they planned.

This all stems from the anger I experienced at reading Roger Ebert say that “Video Games Can Never Be Art.”

I respectfully disagree sir.

He writes “No one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great poets, filmmakers, novelists and poets.” (Yes, he did actually say poets twice. I shan’t correct his mistakes.)

The best games bring in great writing, cinematography, art, and music, and puts them all together in a glorious, beautiful, interactive work.

Maybe that’s why people don’t consider video games as art. They are interactive. With other forms of art, you have to simply take it in. You can’t get up and dance with the ballerinas and you can’t help Robert Downey Jr. save Manhattan. In video games you can. That makes them a different, yet equal, art form.

It’s impossible to put all of these parts together (art, music, writing, cinematography) and not have the outcome be a form of art.

Art + art = 2Art.

Video games are actually a super-art.

But joking aside, art is intended to inspire emotions in the person experiencing it. Video games do just that.

Zombies are everywhere in pop culture. From movies to video games, the old Haitian tale of reanimated corpses has taken over. Just like... a zombie infestation.

There are many different types of zombies depending on the method of their zombification. The poor saps could have been infected by a virus, hit with a curse, been part of a government test, or have lost control of their body to nanobots.

They all have one thing in common: they represent the fall of human civilization.

That’s exactly why I hate zombies.

Sorry guys, I just got the carpets cleaned.

I put a lot of faith in humanity. We’ve come pretty far as a species and I’d hate to see all of that hard work be thrown away. Especially when ‘throwing it away’ consists of losing all control and eating each other.

But maybe that’s what people enjoy. It’s a novel concept and people enjoy novel things. Preparing for the zombie apocalypse is fun, right? Woody Harrelson would agree with me.

Yeah, that&#Array;ll do.

I keep telling my friends that I don’t want to play any more zombie games; they freak me out. But I keep going back. Left 4 Dead, The Walking Dead, and even Plants vs. Zombies are all games that I can’t stop playing, despite my sheer loathing for those rotting corpses.

That’s just it: I really like killing zombies. It’s me taking my frustrations out on the failings of humanity. Regardless of how much they (and what they represent) scare me, I’ll keep going.

Boomers. The worst.

Civilization falls? That’s fine, I found these pipe bombs. Maybe everything is going to be ok. It might be that sense of hope that drives people towards zombies. (Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it?) In every movie there’s someone to root for. Someone to fight and win against the zombies. In games the objective is to defeat the zombies, not to fall prey.

The very idea of being human and what that means is put to the test, and I have to figure out how to deal with it. (It usually comes down to big guns and tough decisions.)

I like the problems that zombie games present, and the responsibility I feel as I try to find the solutions. I'm usually one of the few humans left alive, it's all up to me. It's something I never get in real life. (Thank goodness)

I may hate zombies as creatures, but I like the idea that zombie games put forward. I just wish there was less rotting flesh.